r reverence," said Rodin, "I must
inform you that Morok has been two days in Paris."

"Morok?" said Abbe d'Aigrigny, with surprise. "I thought, on leaving
Germany and Switzerland, he had received from Friburg the order to
proceed southward. At Nismes, or Avignon, he would at this moment be
useful as an agent; for the Protestants begin to move, and we fear a
reaction against the Catholics."

"I do not know," said Rodin, "if Morok may not have had private reasons
for changing his route. His ostensible reasons are, that he comes here to
give performances."

"How so?"

"A dramatic agent, passing through Lyons, engaged him and his menagerie
for the Port Saint-Martin Theatre at a very high price. He says that he
did not like to refuse such an offer."

"Well," said Father d'Aigrigny, shrugging his shoulders, "but by
distributing his little books, and selling prints and chaplets, as well
as by the influence he would certainly exercise over the pious and
ignorant people of the South or of Brittany, he might render services,
such as he can never perform in Paris."

"He is now below, with a kind of giant, who travels about with him. In
his capacity of your reverence's old servant, Morok hoped to have the
honor of kissing your hand this evening."

"Impossible--impossible--you know how much I am occupied. Have you sent
to the Rue Saint-Francois?"

"Yes, I have. The old Jew guardian has had notice from the notary. To
morrow, at six in the morning, the masons will unwall the door, and, for
the first time since one hundred and fifty years, the house will be
opened."

Father d'Aigrigny remained in thought for a moment, and then said to
Rodin: "On the eve of such a decisive day, we must neglect nothing, and
call every circumstance to memory. Read me the copy of the note, inserted
in the archives of the society, a century and a half ago, on the subject
of Rennepont."

The secretary took the note from the case, and read as follows:

"'This 19th day of February, 1682, the Reverend Father-Provincial
Alexander Bourdon sent the following advice, with these words in the
margin: Of extreme importance for the future.

"'We have just discovered, by the confession of a dying person to one of
our fathers, a very close secret.

"'Marius de Rennepont, one of the most active and redoubtable partisans
of the Reformed Religion, and one of the most determined enemies of our
Holy Society, had apparently re-entered the pale of our Mother Ch